Jersey Boys

I caught Jersey Boys with my mum when she came down during September. I hadn't realised that I didn't actually write a review of it despite enjoying the musical IMMENSELY. (I was probably tied up with school work and entertaining my mum).

Jersey Boys tells the story of how Franki Valli and the Four Seasons came to be, following their journey it good ole' dodgy New Jersey. The band was big through the 1960-70s, pretty much around the same time as Elvis I suppose, and eventually disbanded and reunited over several 'dramatic' events. Franki Valli himself is still alive, and played a part in mentoring and giving advice to the different cast members throughout it's production in America as well as other international casts such as the Australian one.

 I first came across Jersey Boys when we visited London in 2010 and saw it advertised in West End. As I was pretty clueless as to who they were or what songs they sang (although my mum was more well versed,), I did a quick google search and immediately fell in love with the musical. I quickly came to realise that I actually knew quite a lot of their hits! (Big Girls Don't Cry, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Walk Like A Man etc. Unfortunately, we were tight for time and unable to catch the musical over Christmas, hence when I saw that they were touring Australia, I leapt at the chance and actually asked my mum to arrange her travelling dates to BNE according to ticket availability at QPAC!

The musical is fantastically enjoyable if you know their music, and even more so if you're a sentimental who enjoys being brought back in time to the 1970s. The script and character development of each person is great, such that you end up actually feeling connected to them. I was surprised how sad I was when the musical depicted them being disbanded! It made me realise how quickly I had come to love them all as individuals, and as a band.

This is a wordy post, but my main message is targeted to any of you lucky people in Singapore right now...

 GO AND CATCH JERSEY BOYS!!!!

You can get your tickets here, although they are fairly overpriced (I think it's because it's at MBS) but it's a great great great musical to bring your parents to if they were into music of that era (But no point if they don't enjoy music or have no idea who they are though). Even if you did buy a $55 ticket, you would get a nice big overview of everything I reckon. My mum and I sat near the front, but got seats with restricted views by the side (hence at a cheaper price), which resulted in a bit of blockage here and there, but the energy in teh audience was just amazing. I suppose I was probably the youngest person there or the only one born in the 1980s in the audience, but that made it even more enjoyable for me, as I saw people my mum's age livin' it up and having a good time clapping and wriggling their bottoms during the different songs. =))) 

(Can't guarantee if our Singaporean aunties and uncles will do that though, but music transcends all cultures right?)

:) ciao

Sinking In... The End

I think it has finally begun to sink in today.. The fact that I have completed my 4 year tertiary education in Brisbane, and that soon, I will be deemed a responsible adult who's life will no longer revolve around numbers such as 1st year, primary 4, secondary 3 etc, and that in a month or so, I will officially be deemed a Speech Pathologist an no longer a uni student. 

It's exciting yet daunting all the same, I know I'll get there eventually, don't we all?

Graduation dinner with Mark and Siqi

Self-Discovery

Someone told me that self-discovery is very important. And I agree that it definitely is something that is part  of the process of developing yourself, your values, personality and expectations, and through that self-discovery, you hopefully find the best way to handle yourself.

I personally prefer to 'deal with myself' as if I were someone else (as crazy and loopy as it sounds), but hear me out. Let's imagine this scenario: You're a teacher/parent with a troublesome kid - a 5 year old who is throwing a temper tantrum, refusing to take a shower when you want him to and refusing to eat when you want him to. And if you are currently a teacher or parent, you might identify with that feeling of frustration and anger when he just refuses to cooperate. You think in your head: "Why can't you just do what I tell you dammit!??". And this might end up as a push/pull fight, whether physical or not, to see who wins that 'power struggle' of doing what they want to be done.

Often, we get lost and engulfed in that moment. I know I do sometimes. Just becoming telescopic and trying to figure out and get him to get from Point A to B by force. But sometimes, doing so in a forceful manner ends up wasting a lot of time (due to the constant push/pull between the both of you), and causing a lot of unhappiness for both parties. Sometimes if I'm too tired, I end up being trapped in that cycle of pushing and pulling (imagine those 'Yes!' and 'No!' arguements). But sometimes, if I have the energy, I think to myself "hang on.. This is getting no where. Let's just think for a moment why he's behaving this way. What does he actually want?"

And then I take myself out of the situation and just visualise our little squabble as if I were a third person (ala out-of-body experience) and ask myself, how would I deal with this if I were someone else?  I might then try something different, or just step out of the moment for a while to calm down. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. But either ways, at least I become a bit calmer and not burst a blood vessel trying to do something.


So how exactly is this relevant to my point?

This is one of the ways I 'self-discovered' about dealing with myself. Taking myself out of the moment, looking at myself and saying 'hang on, what would this look like to someone else?'  or 'how would someone else deal with this?'. And similarly, it ain't a perfect technique, but it's one of my many coping mechanisms. Probably something I never did when I was younger, especially whilst going through that teenage angsty age (when I read my diaries written then, omgtheshame!

I've discovered a lot more things about myself just over the past 2-3 years, like how I know I'm not a hermit, and can never be one (I used to think I could when I was younger), but I started talking and enjoy it too much to ever go back into recluse. Or how I discovered I'm not actually ready to have children at a very young age (I used to think that you could give me a baby anytime and I'd be fine and dandy, but I discovered that you literally give up your life for your child). But that's all for another time perhaps.


What else have you discovered about yourself?

New Niece

So some of you might already know that my sister had her second little daughter, Ellie about 2 weeks back, and that the first one, our dear Ah Bee (as if Gaby could be any shorter), is turning two on Halloween.

It almost seems as if it were yesterday that all Gaby was was this massive bump causing my sister much distress as stretch marks started forming in 2010.

There's that lil' bugger! just 2 years ago!

And while I was sad that I couldn't be there to feel every hiccup, kick, push and shove through my sister's belly, I got to see her embracing soon-to-be motherhood through Skype and her blog (Whatever would we do without technology!)

 And whilst I was busy studying for Neuroanatomy exams (I think) or fussing about whatever frivolous detail regarding my tertiary education, out popped (one night at around 3am BNE time)

Gaby!!

 

Proud dad holding and showing her off to me during her first week or so back home

She just looked so tiny and rat like! I only managed to go down during her 3rd month over Christmas '11, and even then, she was the tiniest ball of soft, mushy, screaming 'du-lan-ness'. I couldn't see any distinct features in her face yet (apart from her frowns and face cringes when she cried, which seemed rather often), and I completely couldn't imagine how she would look like!

And after two trips down to Zurich, and several skype sessions, (not as much as I had hoped, due to the hectic schedule of mothering), soon, that little rodent-looking ball of soft became....







                               This!

She looked much more like a human with her scruffy, fluffy hair. And I remember that I could not, for the love of me, get enough of her baby scent! I just kept inhaling her nice baby smell every single chance I could. Seriously, if they made baby scents into a perfume, all guys would need to do would be to let girls catch a whiff, and I'd guarantee they would go weak at the knees for sure!

And after some more months of hair growing/hair cuts, our lovely little Bee is now a toddler. (She actually toddles omg!!!)

The 'triplets', it's so scary they look so alike, even their smiles!

And so, I finally got the chance to have a good look at Ellie (now affectionately called 'Ah Lee') just a few nights back when my mum and sister were free enough (And after my thesis was submitted).

My mum tells me she's a complete opposite of Ah Bee, she's a perfect little baby, sleeping and being noiseless during the day, but cranking it up real loud at night (most unfortunately). But still, she's proven to be a really 'easy baby' as said by my sister, and doesn't seem to fuss much. One of the key difficulties with Bee was that she refused to take the pacifier or bottle, hence making it difficult for my sister to leave her side as she demanded only her mum's boob for sustenance.

Thankfully, both mum and grandma have started getting Ellie acquainted with the bottle as much as possible, so that my mum can do some 'surrogating' should my sister not be around. 

Here's the new little rodent in the family! All babies look the same right. Even my mum's wearing the same shirt I reckon

And to prove that Ah Lee was a SUPER sound sleeper during the day, and that nothing could be done to keep her awake in order to make her sleep at night, my mum demonstrated with plentiful prodding, how solid a sleeper Ah Lee was. (She really poke damn hard leh)

 And look, maintaining that same position and facial expression even as she shat herself, and my sister had to change her. She looks like she's fake sleeping or totally doped on skype! But looked ohhh so soft and squishy!!

 And finally deciding to open her eyes to take a peek after my sister wet-wiped her ass a little more.

And then it's OOO WHAT'S THE BRIGHT LIGHTTTT

 And then....






Giving me a quick wave

Before deciding to re-enter that heavily drugged state  (good thing about having 2 girls both born in the same month in a country with 4 seasons, you can use the exact same set of clothes!)

Trust me, with 4 seasons it makes planning and baby-clothes buying SOOO much harder! You can't just buy cheap or sale clothes without first considering what season it would be at that time.

"Save me from Grandma!!!!!"

 And then grandma takes over to show me Ah Lee's facial features


Super cock-eyed photo! I think it was the glare from the computer! I felt so afraid she'd become permenantly cock-eyed cos of me!

The cross-eyed-ness!!

All right she wasn't that cross-eyed, she only looked super cross-eyed because of the reflection from the windows making her whites seem whiter. But I do see some meme potential in Ah Lee's current look, hahahhahaa....


I can't wait to see the both of them!!!